In order to promote the publication of the IISEE Newsletter and to activate information exchange between the IISEE staff and ex-participants, we renew the IISEE Newsletter.
We will issue it more often, once a month at least, via Internet. We welcome your articles to our newsletter.

Instruction for contributors
1. An article should be sent as text via e-mail to iiseenews@kenken.go.jp.
2. Text should be written in English.
3. An article should not exceed 500 words.
4. Using hyperlinks is recommended to reduce a size of text
5. An attractive short title should be attached.
6. The IISEE Newsletter will be issued once a month at least.

Nobuo HURUKAWA
Director, IISEE, the Editor in Chief
Takashi HASEGAWA
Senior Research Engineer, IISEE, the Editor

I, Dr. Hurukawa, succeeded Dr. Fukuta as the director of the IISEE on April 1, 2006. I am a seismologist and joined the IISEE in 1984. Dr. Fukuta-san had worked as the director of the IISEE for 5 years and is now a research coordinator of building technology of the BRI. He did great contribution to the IISEE, such as the creation of the Master Degree's program "Earthquake Disaster Mitigation" for our one-year training and the establishment of the new "Tsunami Disaster Mitigation Course". Let's say THANK YOU to Fukuta-san.


Nobuo HURUKAWA
Director, IISEE

Since the 46th Annual Training on Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, which was set in October 2005, BRI, JICA and National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies(GRIPS) cooperated each other to found the master course "Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Program" for getting "Master of Disaster Mitigation." In this September, all 19 participants, who came from 17 countries, were awarded master's degrees as the first ones to receive them in Annual Training Course of IISEE. After the participants get the degrees, they are expected to play active roles in the field of seismology and earthquake engineering on a sound footing gained at IISEE, furthermore, they are sure to contribute to development of earthquake disaster mitigation in their countries.


Shoji SAKURAZAWA
Head of Administration Division, IISEE

In this year, we invite 25 participants from 18 countries and start the 47th Annual Training on Seismology and Earthquake Engineering. In addition to existing two courses, "Seismology Course" and "Earthquake Engineering Course", a new-created "Tsunami Disaster Mitigation Course" was founded. This course is founded to carry out a comprehensive study of tsunami mitigation for one year. We accepted a total of 5 researchers or technicians, who came from 4 countries (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand). All 25 participants became master course students of GRIPS. Let's hope all of them will receive master's degrees one year later.


Shoji SAKURAZAWA
Head of Administration Division, IISEE

The First European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ECEES, http://www.ecees.org/) was held in Geneva on September 3-8, 2006. 1,300 participants came together from 63 countries and discussed up-to-date topics in the field of earthquake engineering and seismology. Dr. Hurukawa, director of IISEE, and I (Dr. Kashima) participated in the conference and presented our research results. We could meet many ex-participants from Algeria, Egypt, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Turkey, and so on. We were very happy to see dear friends to know their activities.


Toshihide KASHIMA
Senior Research Engineer, IISEE

I, Dr. Saito, went to Romania as a JICA short-term expert during 10-25 September, 2006. Mission of this dispatch is to advise Romanian counterparts in "JICA Project on the Seismic Risk Reduction for Buildings in Romania (2002-2007)" for seismic risk evaluation and retrofitting methods for buildings.
http://www.utcb.ro/cnrrs_en/cnrrs.html
http://project.jica.go.jp/romania/7241011E0/english/index.html


Taiki SAITO
Chief Research Engineer, IISEE

The ASC (Asian Seismological Commission) General Assembly and symposium on Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation will be held in Bangkok, Thailand during 6-10, November (http://www.asc1996.netfirms.com/asc2006/index.htm).

Dr. Toshiaki Yokoi and I (T. Hara) are going to attend this meeting. He will give a presentation whose title is "RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF IISEE TRAINING COURSES FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES TARGETED ON MITIGATION OF DISASTERS DUE TO EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMIS." I will give a talk whose title is "IISEE EARTHQUAKE CATALOG OF CMT, AFTERSHOCKS, AND RUPTURE MODELS." The authors of both presentations are IISEE staff members.

We are looking forward to attending this meeting to exchange information on earthquake and tsunami disaster preparedness and mitigation in Asian countries. Also, we expect we will see many IISEE ex-participants who are actively working and studying in the fields of seismology and earthquake engineering. Let's see each other in Bangkok soon.


Tatsuhiko HARA
Chief Research Scientist, IISEE